The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Elisabeth Marbury House -- No. 13 Sutton Place

photo by the author

In April 1837 George Sutton acquired property on the East side
of Manhattan where only a few years earlier were summer estates of New York’s
wealthy.Within a few decades
development had reached the area.In 1875
Effingham B. Sutton erected a row of brownstone residences along the disengaged
section of Avenue A that ran from 57th to 59th
Street.The area was far from the
fashionable neighborhoods to the west; yet it enjoyed the breezes from the East
River directly behind the homes.In 1883
the little stretch of roadway was renamed Sutton Place.

The families who lived in No. 13 Sutton Place were
respectable and middle class.In 1886 it
was home to W. Beuttenmuller, Jr. who was listed in The Scientist’s
International Directory; and in the 1890s Frederick Sauter lived here.He was a member of the New York Zoological
Society.

But by 1895, when Sauter’s family was still in the house,
the neighborhood was becoming gritty.The Peter Doelger Brewery operated nearby, tenement buildings had
replaced many of the private homes, and those that survived were neglected and
decaying.As the turn of the century
passed, No. 13 had been converted for use by the Mha Chemical Company.

Sutton Place following World War I was not the sort of area one would expect Manhattan's wealthiest citizens to congregate. photograph from the collection of the New York Public Library.

But in 1920 a stalwart group of wealthy New Yorkers did the
shocking.They decided to colonize
Sutton Place, creating what they would call Sutton Square—so called because the
houses would share a large common garden in the rear that spilled down to the
river.On December 26, 1920 the New-York
Tribune broke the news, saying “A group of well known folks…have become
interested in a little cluster of homes in the shadow of the massive Queensboro
Bridge, on Sutton Place, a little byway of the city known by comparatively few
New Yorkers.”

The socially-important urban pioneers included W. Seward
Webb, Jr. “whose mother was Lila Osgood Vanderbilt,” architect Eliot Cross,
Robert C. Knapp, Frederick Allen, conductor Walter Damrosch and others.Listed in the newspapers account was Miss
Elisabeth Marbury.The exclusive enclave
was composed of 18 houses forming a horseshoe around the garden; from 57th
street, along the east side of Sutton Place, and back around 58th
Street.

The New-York Tribune published a photograph of the unaltered houses on January 16, 1921. The New York Times called the area "a slum." (copyright expired)

The group agreed, for uniformity, that “The brownstone
stoops, the window ledges and other protrusions are to be cleaved off, leaving
a straight front to the outside world.Architecturally the façade will be of the American basement style, which
has been popular in the Fifth Avenue district for the last decade."

Elisabeth Marbury was a wealthy literary agent and producer
who had been born into an aristocratic family.Among her clients were Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.In 1887 she met Elsie de Wolfe.Like most affluent young women, Elsie had
traveled through Europe in her teens. She was well-known in New York social
circles for her beautiful and creative dresses.But prior to meeting Marbury, she did something that no doubt raised
eyebrows in many a Fifth Avenue sitting room.She went on stage as an amateur actress.

It was the first step in the colorful life of a woman, who
like Elisabeth Marbury, dared to do what she wanted to do, despite tradition or
social expectations.

When Elsie de Wolfe returned to New York in 1892, she
briefly moved into Elisabeth’s home.The
couple would become Manhattan’s most visible lesbian pair for decades.Later that year Elsie leased the house at No.122 East 17th Street where she and Elisabeth lived together until
1920.

The Evening World printed a rather masculine looking photo of Elisabeth on March 3, 1921 (copyright expired)

By now their relationship was changing and living separately
seemed the best idea.It would never be
a complete severance, however; and Elsie de Wolfe, now considered perhaps the
foremost interior decorator in America, handled much of the design plans for
Elisabeth’s house at No. 13 Sutton Place.

De Wolfe often worked hand-in-hand with architect Mott B.
Schmidt and he was brought in to remake the old, deteriorating Victorian.(It was a profitable commission for Schmidt,
for he would soon do the renovations for two more Sutton Place mansions—those of
Elisabeth’s friends Anne Morgan, daughter of J. P. Morgan; and Anne Vanderbilt,
widow of William K. Vanderbilt.)When
the New-York Tribune reported on December 1, 1920 that “Miss Marbury will make
extensive alterations,” its readers could not have imagined how extensive those
renovations would be.Schmidt’s transformation
would cost “Bessie” $20,000—more than a quarter of a million dollars today.

Marbury explained the migration to The Evening World
reporter Will B. Johnstone a few weeks after the renovations began.“It is the obvious thing to do.Here is sunlight and air and a river view as
desirable as Riverside Drive.Why should
the East River be neglected?Our garden
will be a gem; a quaint old English garden with a red bricked wall.”

The Sutton Square gardens were intended to be the focal
point of living here.“The interiors of
our old brownstones will be completely turned about,” she said.“Living rooms, dining rooms, drawing rooms
and master bedrooms will be in the back, facing our delightful garden and river
view.What is now the front of the
houses will be devoted to service entrances, kitchens and maids’ bedrooms.In this way the houses will be isolated from
outside surroundings so far as owners and guests are concerned.”

While Schmidt’s renovated façade would be less grand than
those he produced for Morgan and Vanderbilt; the Marbury house pretended to be
an understated 18th century townhouse from the streets of Boston or
London.Elegant in its simplicity, it
was entered a few steps below the sidewalk. But if the exterior did little boasting, Elsie
de Wolfe’s interiors made up for it.

The Times described the interiors.“On the ground floor of Miss Marbury’s house,
opening on a rear terrace, is the dining room, paneled in oak, with old
English, French and Spanish furniture, and hung temporarily with Jacobean
crewel curtains and old needlework.

“At the rear of the second floor is the library, the walls
of which are nearly covered with bookshelves.The drawing room, on the same floor, has among its furnishings a
mahogany Chippendale secretary, Louis XVI tapestry-covered chairs, paintings
and objects of art.

“On the third floor at the rear is Miss Marbury’s bedroom,
furnished largely in French painted furniture, and at the front a guest room,
in which hang three old Chinese paintings.”

Elisabeth Marbury did not restrict herself to the theatrical
business.She was outspoken on political
issues and made herself a force to be heard.She was a leader of woman suffrage and an ardent opponent of
Prohibition (she called the attempt to enforce Prohibition “a grotesque and
tragic failure”).Her satirical sense of
humor and brilliant command of the written and spoken word was evidenced in an
article about upcoming elections she wrote in June 1920.

“We were hoping against hope that Babe Ruth would open up
headquarters.If only an honest-to-goodness
human being would stumble into the White House by accident then the whispering
gallery to be found in all the hotels would not have to give out such important
items as ‘Tumulty has telephoned (stop),’ ‘McAdoo will run (don’t stop).’”

And yet in stark contrast to her support of women’s rights
was her response to a journalist question about how a woman could be
successful.“There is only one real
success for women; that is to marry happily and have children and a home.”

By the time Bessie moved into the her new house, she was
earning, according to The Evening World, $26,000 a year—more than the
renovations had cost her.While her
relationship with Elsie de Wolfe was perhaps no longer romantic, it was still
strong.On March 19, 1922 when The New
York Times reported that Elsie was leaving for Europe on the Aquitania, it
listed her address as 13 Sutton Place.A
little over a week later the newspaper notes that Elsie would “reopen the Villa
Trianon at Versailles, where Miss Elisabeth Marbury will join her in June.”It added “Miss Marbury has discontinued her
Sunday teas at 13 Sutton Place.”

Four years later The New York Times received a startling telegram
from Paris.On March 9, 1926 it reported
“According to reliable information this evening, Elsie de Wolfe, former
American actress, and Sir Charles Mendl, head of the press section of the
British Embassy in Paris, plan to be married Wednesday morning.”The newspaper added what to some was
obvious.“The intended wedding comes as
a great surprise to their friends.”

The ones who were not surprised by the newspaper account were
Bessie’s closest friends.“Announcement
of the planned wedding was made very recently at a fashionable tea given by
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt.Only a small
circle of intimate friends were informed.”The Times closed its article saying “When in New York [Miss de Wolfe]
makes her home with Miss Elisabeth Marbury at 13 Sutton Place."

Bessie Marbury apparently enjoyed her downtime not only in teas and other refined Sutton Square entertainments.On the evening of Wednesday October 26, 1927 she left No. 13 and headed
to “a night club on East Fifty-seventh Street.”The now-aging woman was no doubt panicked when she realized within the
next day or so that she had lost a ring that evening.On Saturday The New York Times noted that “Miss
Marbury said the ring was a fifteenth century piece,which had belonged to a
Pope and which had been given to her by an Englishman, Evan Morgan, the son of
Lord Tredegar.”

A staunch Democrat, Elisabeth Marbury was actively involved in
the political arena—in so far as a woman could be--and became a National
Democratic Party committeewoman.Her
Democratic ties were evidenced when, on March 17, 1931, she gave a “small luncheon”
in the house for Governor and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt to celebrate their 26th
wedding anniversary.

A few months later, on May 2, the house was the scene of a
much larger affair.“About 200 guests,
including Democratic women leaders in the various districts of the five
boroughs, attended the reception and tea given by Miss Elisabeth Marbury, Democratic National Committeewoman from New York State, for Mrs. John F.
Curry, wife of the Tammany Hall leader,” reported The Times the following day.

Elisabeth Marbury (right) in her later years -- photograph Library of Congress

When a reporter asked Elisabeth if she cared to comment on the upcoming
1932 Democratic Convention, she replied that as a State Committeewoman, she
could not comment on a candidate.Then
she quoted Woodrow Wilson.“’Facts do
not threaten—they operate.’We Democrats
do not have to worry.We are sitting
still and watching facts operate.”

On Thursday, January 19, 1933 the 77-year old Elisabeth
Marbury underwent a minor operation on her leg.She seemed to have come through the operation with no ill effects.Then, at 5:33 on the morning of January 22
she died in the Sutton Place house of a heart attack.The amazing woman died with only her servants
and her physician, Dr. A. W. Dunn, in the room.

Two days later Rev. Thomas L. Graham of St. Patrick’s
Cathedral arrived at the Sutton Place home to give a blessing to Marbury’s
body.It was then taken to the Cathedral
where 2,000 mourners filed in for the funeral.Outside, an estimated crowd of 1,000 crammed the sidewalks.The woman who died alone was now honored by
the presence of Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the President-elect; the former
Governor Alfred E. Smith; and political figures like James A. Farley, Mayor
John P. O’Brien, and Robert Jackson, Democratic national secretary.

“The coffin was borne into the church under a rich covering
of Templar roses and lilies of the valley from which hung long streamers of
smilax,” reported The New York Times.“The
floral blanket had been sent by Miss Anne Morgan and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt,
both of whom were present.”

Bessie left nearly her entire estate, including the Sutton
Place residence valued at $35,000, to Elsie de Wolfe.In November 1933 No. 13 was opened to the
public to preview the upcoming auction of all Marbury’s possessions.After the house was emptied, it was placed on
the market.Its buyer would be as
well-known as Elisabeth Marbury.

On March 3, 1934 The New York Times reported that “Miriam
Hopkins, actress, was the buyer of the home of the late Elisabeth Marbury at 13
Sutton Place when it was sold two weeks ago.”The theater connection of the two owners was not lost on syndicated
columnist George Ross who wrote “The dynasty is continued at 13 Sutton Place
and the girl from Hollywood is in charge.Admirers gravitate toward its brownstone front to sit and worship or
just to sit.”

According to The New York Times, Hopkins “extensively
altered” the house.“She installed
air-conditioning and a remote-control radiovictrola which can be operated from
any room in the building.”But the
actress, simply by the nature of her profession, was unable to stay for
extended periods in the Sutton Place house.

She frequently was required to close the house when she was
in Hollywood or elsewhere filming.In
1936 George Ross wrote that Hopkins “has waved a fond so-long to her four-story
brownstone that stands with its priceless furnishings on Sutton Place and to
the East River scows that she could see at even a slight turn of her flaxen
head.She has left behind her proud
collection of books and art, and that graphic view that she could get (had she
a mind to) from the northeast bedroom window.She has also left behind, practically a whole artists’ colony that
gravitates toward her dwelling.”

Mirian Hopkins began leasing the house around 1938 during
her absences.That year she rented it to
Richard S. Rheem, President of the Rheem Manufacturing Company of San Francisco.The arrangement was convenient; since both
came and went from the West Coast.

She was back the following summer when she talked to
reporter Willa Gray Martin of the Sutton Square residents’ revolt against the
proposed FDR Drive.“We sat in Miss
Hopkins’ Sutton Place house facing the East River.In the garden outside, summer’s late flowers
and grass were making a last stand.And
beyond, through the trees, could be seen the river where men were working on a
highway.Every once in a while a
war-like cataclysm would rent the air, shaking the flowers into hysterics.A roadway was being blasted,” reported Martin
on October 15, 1939.

Hopkins explained.“There
was a nefarious pan afoot to have the highway run parallel to our lawns.But those of us who own houses in Sutton
Place got together and paid to have the road covered over with grass.Our back yards will stretch right down to the
river as they do now, and we’ll have boat landings, though goodness knows who’ll
use them!”

Because of the actions of Miriam Hopkins and her wealthy
neighbors, the FDR Drive runs under the Sutton Place backyards today; not
through them.

Miram Hopkins came and went from California to Sutton Place,
leasing No. 13 in the interim mostly to film industry figures like director
Garson Kanin, who lived here in 1942; Judy Garland, who leased it for seven
months; and Jules Stein.

Eventually, at the age of 64, Hopkins sold No. 13 Sutton
Place when she moved permanently to Los Angeles in 1966.Little has changed since then.The house that Elisabeth Marbury, Elsie de
Wolfe and Mott Schmidt created was recently put on the market for $15 million.It is a remarkable slice in the history of
American theater, literature and politics; as well as in the development of a
most unexpected and unique residential New York enclave.

3 comments:

After 17th Street, but before Sutton Place, Marbury and De Wolfe bought or leased a house in the East '50's that was, stylistically at least, a predecessor to 13 Sutton Place: they took an old fashioned brownstone, removed the stoop and converted the old English basement into the entrance floor, enlarged the 2nd floor drawing room windows and stripped off most of the ornamentation. It was evidently successful enough that De Wolfe repeated it basically verbatim in a "spec" house she remodel led on 71st Street between Park and Lexington. I seem to recall that Ogden Codman was her architect on both projects.

The only original rooms in the house are theDining room with wood paneling and the library on the 2nd floor. Robert Rotner architect and Michael Uzzi architect contractor did a gut renovation on this house back in the mid 1990's. The rear facade was ripped down and new balconies added. They also added an elevator and penthouse.Please contact Robert Rotner or Michael Uzzi at 212-949-0011 if you have questions regarding this house and renovation.